take a listen. >> pretty obvious the political knives were out for chuck hagel. what disappointed me is that they talked a lot about past quotes, but what about what a secretary of defense is confronting today. >> leon panetta, the man hagel is replacing today. he was out defending susan rice, but we didn't hear from the president. not a mid level staffer, low level. we didn't hear anything from the wousd while chuck hagel was out there. why do you think that was? >> i think they were, in fact, a little embarrassed by this inexplicably bad performance. it was like the guy was on, i don't know, tranquilizers or something, sleeping pills failed to ease up in the morning. the guys who briefed him said he did great in practice, we don't i don't know this happened. as senators, sometimes we're more accustomed to asking questions than answering them, clearly that was the case with him. but the other reason you don't see the president coming out, this nomination is probably not in trouble. no democrats are opposing him. mike johanns, a republican from his state says he'